In the case that you have not heard, we are excited to announce the release of our new resource, Activating 5Q: User’s Guide. If you are looking for a way to immerse your lead team or small group in 5Q, this is a great place to start. As a companion to the book, Activating 5Q: User’s Guide will move your group forward, help you become more fluid in thinking and seeing in 5Q colors as well as experiencing growth in your APEST gifts.

This week, I want to share my personal experience with the User Guide resources and hopefully encourage you to choose this path as you consider a next step.

We (as in every single follower of Christ) are called to make disciples who make disciples. How we live out that calling is particular and important and how we empower/expect our leaders, colleagues, mentors, and mentees to fully utilize the essential passions and motivations that have drawn us into ministry in the first place is the difference between life giving vibrant ministry and pure grueling sacrifice that is to be endured out of pure duty to the church.

If we believe that God has to give each leader in the church a personal Christ- ordained calling (5Q) on his or her life, but at the same time we do not give them space to fully embody their particular calling in how they live out their leadership, we are immediately  snuffing out the same spark we lit in the first place.

Today’s post is an excerpt from Alan’s new book, 5Q: Activating the Original Intelligence and Capacity of the Body of Christ, and an exciting look at a new video and exercise from the new 5Q Training. We are so excited to share what’s new with you! In the meantime, before everything is ready for release, enjoy this introduction and stay ready for more! 

Fellow Travelers, this week, the 5QCollective is working overtime to share with you new learning modules and online resources. The new material takes what is great about 5Q:  Reactivating The Original Intelligence and Capacity of The Body of Christ and adds a third dimension: activating 5Q training and coaching.  Get ready! 

Today’s post begins with an excerpt from 5Q: Reactivating The Original Intelligence and Capacity of The Body of Christ and wraps up with a preview exercise from the brand new training – Spoiler Alert. Enjoy! 

The habits of institution that we have inherited through the European formulas are coded according to a different template than the fivefold one. Christendom churches have generally followed the Bishop-Priest-Deacons model, or the more generic Shepherd-Teacher model (the so-called two  orders of ministry), or the Preacher-Elder model of the Reformed tradition. Most of these, as we have seen, have managed to assiduously script a full APEST typology out of the tradition. The net result is that we don’t know how to even talk about APEST dynamics, let alone implement APEST. We are out of touch with the more instinctive models laced throughout the book of Acts. Here are three levels of work to get them back.

The 5Q Collective team is getting ready to roll out several exciting, brand new coaching opportunities to help you plant a new 5Q paradigm in the culture you lead and shape.  We are aware that transformation does not merely come through new paradigms and mere information. As we follow Jesus, we fully partake in a dynamic process with him.

As you’re engaged with 5Q (the book) we would like to share with you the opportunity to engage further on a transformative journey that will involve deepening your own discipleship, strengthening your leadership, as well developing the capacities of your church or organization.

Through the non-profit organization I founded, Kyrios Ministries, our international team offers APEST Activation workshops to local churches around Austria.

As a passionate team of Jesus followers, we are internally cultivating the 5Q language, recognizing the calling areas, complimenting each other, feeling the tensions, using 5Q thinking (APEST hats) for decision making, and pursuing areas of synergy. Our goal? Display Jesus in his fullness.

As leaders we can drift into, or just settle into, prioritizing delivery over development.

We need people. We need team. We need to be a Band of Brothers or a Fellowship of the Ring, not the genius with a thousand helpers.

But how do we produce heroes not helpers? How do we access the gifts & treasure of all, not just have people around us who make us shine? As we consider 5Q, there is some territory to be covered together as we think of team.

Today, we offer you a challenging excerpt from the new book, 5Q: Reactivating The Original Intelligence Of The Body Of Christ. It’s no secret that the Church has some hurdles to conquer in order to become the missional movement that is embedded in its genetic code. In today’s post, Alan addresses this and answers all of us who wonder, “Is there a silver bullet that will just fix everything?”

Read on to find out how 5Q can lead to actual transformation in the 21st Century Church.

The five-fold ministry described in Ephesians 4:11 as a gift from Jesus to the body of believers was meant to address the very heart-issues we see playing out on the national social stage. All five functions were meant to champion certain aspects of God’s over-arching will for us. They were also meant to challenge a distorted focus on any one function. All functions are equally needed and they exist in state of inherent tension. The inherent tensions were meant to provide a process of checks-and-balances over one another.